Construction Mrktg. Assn. releases survey results

The results of a September survey of construction marketers that identifies marketing budget outlook, top marketing priorities, and tactical marketing plans for the upcoming fiscal year conducted by the Construction Marketing Association (CMA) have been released.

The anonymous survey was conducted via SurveyMonkey, a Web-based tool, and posed the following four (4) questions:

1) For the coming fiscal year, do you intend to increase or decrease marketing activities and budgets?

2) What is your most important marketing priority for 2011?

3) Which marketing tactics will increase or decrease in 2011?

4) What type of (construction) company are you?

The answers to the first question regarding plans to increase or decrease marketing activities and budgets identified a resounding 65 percent majority of respondents planning to increase, with a minority 22.5 percent planning to decrease marketing activities or budgets, and 12.5 percent maintaining marketing activities and budgets.

Regarding top marketing priorities for 2011, MeasuringResults topped all at 21 percent of respondents, followed by InternetMarketing at 17 percent, which included websites, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media. ImplementingMarketing ranked third at 14 percent, followed by Sales Lead Generation at 11 percent. Marketing Budgets and Talent Recruitment round out top priorities at 8 percent and 6 percent. While Product Development, Advertising and Publicity/PR ranked relatively low at 3 percent each.

Regarding marketing tactic increases/decreases, not surprisingly almost all respondents plan to increase Internet, SocialMedia and PR activities, with planned increases/decreases split for Promotions and Advertising. Reinforcing personal experience, a majority (59 percent) of respondents plan to decrease Trade Show activities/budgets.

The company classification question somewhat mirrors the overall industry make-up with 28 percent of respondents from architectural, engineering or construction firms (AEC), followed by 25 percent building materials, and 17 percent home builders or remodelers, which likely has some overlap with AEC. Equipment/Tools represented 14 percent, followed by services at 9 percent.